Fabulous Chorizo and Plantain Salad

As you can easily see I have two clear favourites in the moment: salads in every form – spring calls for something fresh – and chorizo. Brindisa at Borough Market offers the best of these Spanish delicatessens in town. For more information visit http://www.brindisa.com/

This salad is super easy to make but I promise you, it has the wow-factor! Mister Thom read about it in a magazine and we refined the recipe a little bit. At the beginning I wasn’t sure about the combination of hot chorizo and fruity plantain. For those of you who actually don’t know what plantain is, here a little definition:

Plantain is a banana-like fruit of the genus Musa. Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae and it includes different sorts of bananas and plantains.

They look a little bit like brown bananas but they are slightly bigger and straighter. They also feel much harder than bananas. And please note, you need to cook them before you eat them.

If you’re not that lucky and get plantain in your local fruit and veg shop, it might be worth doing a little trip to Brixton’s wonderful Caribbean Food Market. If you’re interested in learning more about that market go to http://www.brixtonmarket.net/. A feature about Brixton’s market will follow soon.

As I said, I didn’t really believe in that exotic combo but as soon as the scent of grilled plantain in hot chorizo oil spread in my kitchen I put all my doubts aside. So if you want to impress with this Euro-Caribbean culinary highlight, all you need for two is:

300g – 500g Cooking Chorizo, depending on your appetite

2 Plantains

70g Rocket salad

70g Watercress Salad

1 sweet red pepper (optional)

Red wine vinegar

Tiny bit of Olive oil

Fresh grounded pepper

Cut chorizo and plantain in 1 – 2 cm slices. First fry the cooking chorizo in a little olive oil. When they have a nice tint, place them aside and put some of the juices they have lost in a small bowl. That will be the base of our dressing. Now fry the plantain in the same pan with the remaining chorizo oil. Once they got a lovely colour they are ready to roll. Put one or two tea spoons of red wine vinegar in the hot pan, let it simmer for a few seconds. Add it to the chorizo oil in the bowl and stir well with some fresh grounded pepper – the dressing is done.

Now dish the salad on plates, arrange chorizo and plantain on top and add the dressing for the finishing touch. That’s it!

Serve with bread or without it. If you decided against bread, you will have some space in your stomach for a dessert. Why not try some vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries? The soft vanilla ice cream will go down very smoothly after the hot Spanish sausage.

By the way, a dry and rich red wine goes very well with that exotic mix. Personally, I prefer an Italian Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. But why not go with something Caribbean and try a Dragon Stout? Its malty perfume offers deep hints of mocha with a dash of soy sauce, backed by the firm promise of alcohol. Might be worth trying!